Page 77 of Black Sheep
I’m a goddamned fucking idiot.This is what happens when you think with your dick.
Betrayal and anger bubble just beneath the surface like a boiling-hot pool of magma. I’m a goddamned volcano about to erupt, and when I do, it’s not going to be on the self-absorbed woman in the seat beside me. No, it’ll wait until after I drop her off at the Plaza,where she doesn’t even have a room booked because she doesn’t do that kind of thing herself.
I suck in a deep breath, focusing on the road and listening to every word of her inane chatter. It fills in so many fucking blanks, I don’t know how I missed them all.
“Memphis was always a daddy’s girl. She and I never got along. I think it’s because people always mistook us for best friends instead of stepmother and daughter. Because obviously it’s clear she couldn’t possibly be my child. This body hasn’t gone through childbirth.”
She laughs in what is probably supposed to be a seductive manner, but it comes off as brittle and bitter as she smiles over at me with her perfectly applied mauve lipstick.
“She’s probably already told you all that. She’s her father’saccidentfrom a prior relationship. Can you believe he didn’t even tell me he had a child when we got married? I didn’t sign up for that, but I was a team player when he brought her home one day. I was never meant to be a mother, though. I think that gene missed me, but I did my best. Not that she’s ever been grateful for it.”
I exit the highway, wishing I could punch the gas harder instead of having to brake. I want this woman out of my car as fast as possible, but thankfully, she doesn’t notice a damn thing except the sound of her own voice.
“She couldn’t even bother to answer the phone when I called. Always so busy with work.” Finally, she glances at me. “Do you know what she’s working on now? Or is she keeping that a secret from you too?”
My teeth grind together, and my molars threaten to crack under the pressure. It takes me a moment before I can even summon words to answer her because the truth isI am her daughter’s fucking investigation. I don’t have to hear it fromMemphisto know.
“Not sure,” I bite out, but in my brain, I’m raging.
What the fuck is she thinking, trying to dig into the goddamned fucking mob? Does she want to end up dead? Does she want to get me killed too? No, she probably just wants to see me behind bars.
How could I have been so fucking stupid? The signs were all there. The wig. The contacts. The two phones. The bits and pieces of information she shared.
And I still fell in love with the little liar, who I now want to pick up and shake until every single fucking bit of the truth falls from her sweet, lying lips.
It’s a miracle that my ability to turn rage to ice is still functioning, because other than the day my mother had been killed, I’ve never wanted to destroy everything I can lay my hands on.
And right beside me, her stepmother keeps going.
“I really hope they have a suite left for me. I’m one of the Plaza’s most valued customers, you know. Leander always kept an apartment here in the city, but I never wanted to stay in it. I told him that important people always stay at the Plaza, because how else is anyone going to know they’re here? If there was ever a man who was completely untrainable, it was Leander. I know the entire world thought he was infallible, but he was a regular man like everyone else. I just wish he hadn’t encouraged Memphis the way he did. She went off to Columbia to get her journalism degree—”
Columbia. Which wasn’t on her fucking résumé because that would have made her way too overqualified for the goddamned job, I think as her mom keeps going without taking a breath.
“And she didn’t even have a single boyfriend the entire time. I’m sure every other girl in her class snapped up the good ones while she had her nose buried in books. She really could’ve benefited from more of my influence, but she only listened to her father.”
Even though I’m seething behind my polite mask, I can’t help but feel a single pang of thankfulness. I’m fucking thankful thatMemphisdidn’t benefit from any more of her mother’s influence. Except ... if she had, then there would be no way in hell I would have ever fallen for her.
Blessing or curse? I don’t even know. How fucked up is that?
When I pull up in front of the Plaza, I waste no time popping the trunk and getting the fuck out of the car to get Mrs. Lockwood’s bag.
Lockwood. Memphis Lockwood.Even as her name floats through my brain, I can picture the reporter on TV, but she doesn’t look like my Drew ... at least, not really.
Except she’s notmy Drew. She’s a goddamned chameleon.
“I never let anyone see me like this. Ever.”Her words from this morning come back with a vengeance, and now I understand exactly why she never let anyone see her in the one guise she couldn’t change.
When I place Mrs. Lockwood’s Louis Vuitton luggage on the bellhop’s cart that appeared as efficiently as ever, she smiles at me.
“It was so nice to meet you, Mr. Freeman. Do tell Memphis that I’ll be free for dinner tomorrow evening, and I expect her to take me out somewhere nice. A Michelin-starred restaurant, obviously.”
I literally have nothing to say to this woman, so I just nod. “I’ll letMemphisknow.”
Without even waiting to find out if she can get a room, I jump back in my car and punch the gas, needing the angry growl of the engine to drown out my thoughts. They all pretty much center around one thing—
Today Memphis Lockwood is telling me the goddamned truth and nothing else.
46
